There are only private stories and these, however, belong to an entire people. The tragedy in Janaúba (MG), on October 5th, killed children and teacher Heley de Abreu Silva Batista, aged 43. In the month of teachers and children, mourning replaces joy; disconsolation, instead of hope. Following the daily shocks we go through in Brazil, the story of Professor Heley and the children tends to be forgotten in a few days or weeks, adding to our naturalization and disregard for life. But, before that, it is necessary to note that the episode at the Janaúba daycare center could be the death of a little of the humanity that exists in each of us or, perhaps, an opportunity to awaken from the lethargy we are experiencing.
Everything that is particular is representative of the totality. In the case of Heley and her gestures we saw the full portrait of education in Brazil: donation and neglect. The teacher was the first to notice the guard's criminal act against the children. She removed the children through the window and fought physically against the man who set fire to the daycare center.
From press reports and the observation of people who lived with Heley, she was a colleague with the same hardships as thousands of others. Her previous personal tragedy, the loss of a 4-year-old son to drowning, was with her every moment of her work with children and she did not lack hope. A mother, she left behind 3 daughters, while she sought to save those before her. Heley's final donation is a tragedy amid the common neglect of a daycare center that didn't even have a fire extinguisher.
A life illustrates a context
Being a teacher in Brazil is a paradoxical task: social and economic discredit coexists with adjectives and values that teachers attribute to themselves and, in general, are recognized by students and members of school communities. The idealism of young people who attend undergraduate courses is a chimera of hope and enchantment with the construction of the future. The good memories regarding teachers who marked our lives and the inevitable nature of realizing that without teachers we would be much worse off than we are, give the image that dedicating oneself to teaching is a precious task, even without due recognition adequate wages and working conditions.
In that sense, there are many Heleys. People who face overcrowded rooms, difficulties in buying a book or attending a museum or cinema, who see their voices give way after long journeys and, despite this, trust in their work and offer the best of themselves to children, young people and adults. The generosity of teaching, of demonstrating how seductive the enchantment with words, scientific discoveries, literary works, historical processes and logical-mathematical reasoning can be, is an essential attribute of educators.
Heley was a teacher who studied and dedicated herself to the inclusion of people with disabilities. Thus, so many teachers dedicate themselves to issues that go beyond their fields of knowledge. Social, collective, present-day agendas or major general issues are other aspects of the lives of teachers who, overcoming the bureaucracy of filling out diaries, making calls and participating in many innocuous meetings, share an expectation of the world with their students.
Heley must have thought about giving up several times, but not at that final hour. The succession of joys and bitterness in the daily lives of teachers are infinite, as are the possibilities of a human being. The tensions of a classroom, including the threat of physical violence that we often read about, would be motivation enough to ask the question: why should I continue? With each report, change in career plan, with each professional discouragement, the question emerged: does it still make sense? At each meeting in the staff room with that colleague who gave up on education, but unfortunately remains there like a grinder of expectations vociferating against life, signs must have appeared: one day I too will succumb, I will give up and, above all, I will try to make others lose your dreams?
Heley must have faced several adverse conditions. The salary may never have been commensurate with such responsibility. The inhospitable conditions of classrooms and schools that resemble prisons are a fact of life for thousands of teachers who, despite the energy and sense of urgency in the lives of children and young people, seem to ignore that that journey takes place in places that do not have an architecture for freedom, for dreams and for creativity. Most schools, public and private, reproduce a disciplinary scheme of divided times and spatial perception that do not match the joy and desire to break down barriers and be in charge of one's own life. But, even in these environments, teachers manage to transcend the space where basic comfort is often lacking and insert an image, awaken curiosity and desire life.
Heley must have had a lot of insecurities and fears. With each new school cycle or each student who enters the classroom, there are questions and lives intertwined to the point of wondering about the usefulness of what we do. The fear that failures outweigh successes, that my didactic and professional attitude does not promote the autonomy of those people who, randomly, are sitting there in 6th A, in 2nd C and in that room that makes noise and has little interest in what every teacher and teacher prepared for that day. We are always afraid of being seen as obsolete. Note, in the days that follow, we do not measure ourselves by asking whether we are good or not, but whether or not we have already surpassed our teaching tasks. But, we also know that our experience takes us one step further and, if we still wonder about our practices and insecurities, it is because we have not become insensitive to what we do or the lives that surround us.
Between full donation and neglect, so many Heleys, of all genders, populate the classrooms and in that Heley, that of Abreu Silva Batista, we all identify and are uncomfortable with the result of another tragedy that occurred in Brazil in 2017. For we who remain, Fernando Pessoa's tip, in Book of Disquiet, “I can’t be anything or everything: I’m the bridge between what I don’t have and what I don’t want.”
Rest in peace, Helen!
